Preserve Cherished Holiday Memories With a Digital Photo Book

Creating a digital photo book is a wonderful way to preserve your family's traditions, highlight fun family moments or brighten up the lives of those you love. You may consider creating a new holiday photo book each season, and you may line your family's bookshelves with a different book that you all have created with love together each year. These can also be fun gift ideas for those who are hard to shop for on your holiday shopping list. While there are many ways that you can use a digital photo book, the first step is to create a lovely book. This article will explain how to create a digital photo book.

Time: 1-2 hours, depending on your (computer) skills.

MaterialsA blank or theme book
Photos
A computer
A photo editing software
A printer (optional)

Method

Choose Your Theme

As a first step, you should consider what your digital photo book theme is. You may consider searching through some of your family's existing photos in order to create the perfect theme, or you may create new photos specifically for use with the book. There are many fun ideas, such as memorable events from holiday parties or family dinners, awkward family photos from the holiday season, memorable gift giving moments, holiday trips and more. In some cases, you may simply create a book highlighting the entire season. PhotoBookGirl demonstrated some wonderful examples of holiday ideas that you can use in your photo books.

For example, you may create a book for Christmas 2014 that showcases all of your family's high, memorable and fun moments throughout the holiday season. In this way, the book may serve as a memory book for the year. Another idea is to have your family retell a treasured holiday story using your own family photos depicting the scenes. This can be a fun project for your family to complete, and you can pick a new story each year. Some of the ideas are explained here.

Purchase the Book

Once you have chosen the perfect theme for your book, the next step is to purchase the actual book. There are many books that have durable and blank sheets inside a hardbound cover. Some have a holiday theme on them, and others are completely blank. These are photo books that you can design on your own based on the theme you have chosen, and they are perfect for use as a photo book for your Christmas memories or stories. If you cannot find one of these books in a local store, you may consider placing a convenient order online.

Design Your Pages

After you have your book in hand and have the dimensions of your page available, you can begin designing your pages. While you could mount your photos using basic scrapbooking materials, many people are making the decision to create digital pages. You can use a basic file document program, or you can invest in a photo or design software program (e.g. GIMP, which is free) that allows you to insert your own images into graphics that you have selected or downloaded. You may add text, captions or other details to the pages to make them come alive. This may be text that is sentimental, humorous or something else altogether.

Use High-Quality Printing

A final point to consider is the quality of printing. There are many excellent home printers that can give you professional results, and if you have one of these machines, you should consider investing in the best paper to use with the printer. The sheets that you design and print out can be mounted to the sheets in the book for a gorgeous result. If you do not have a quality printer at home, you may consider investing in one. If you plan to make other photo books, this investment can be a convenience and can help you to save money over time. Another option available is to use professional printing services.

A digital photo book is a wonderful idea for a special holiday gift for friends and family members, but you can also create your own books that highlight special memories. In some cases, making the books are the memories themselves, such as if your family creates a photo book that retells a treasured holiday story each year. Think about these tips, and begin making your photo book today.